Chapter 9 - THE MAN MY MOTHER FEARED|
The shot struck the stone pillar beside the entrance.
An officer shouted for everyone to get down. The paramedic pulled my mother behind a concrete planter, while Julian grabbed my arm and guided me behind the nearest vehicle.
"Stay low," he ordered.
I shook him off.
"Who fired?"
"We don't know yet."
"Then find out!"
He looked at me for a fraction of a second, and I saw the old instinct return—the instinct to control every movement, every answer, every person within reach.
But he didn't order me to remain silent.
He crouched beside me and spoke into his radio, coordinating with the security professionals who had accompanied us. The authorities moved toward the tree line while another team secured the building.
No one fired back blindly. No one charged into the woods without knowing where the threat was coming from.
It was terrifyingly quiet.
Then an officer reported that the shot had come from beyond the eastern fence. A vehicle had been seen leaving the area, but its occupants were unknown.
My mother clutched my hand.
"They knew you were coming," she whispered.
"Who?"
She looked toward Julian.
"The people who have been watching this family for years."
Julian knelt a short distance away.
"Mrs. Vale, I need you to tell us what you know. But only when you're ready and medically safe."
My mother stared at him.
"You don't get to pretend you care about safety."
He accepted the accusation without defending himself.
"You're right that I have no right to demand your trust. But someone just fired at a property where you were being kept. I want to make sure nobody gets hurt."
She looked away.
The medical team examined her and determined that she needed to be taken to a hospital. She was weak from prolonged isolation and had been living under severe restrictions, but she was conscious and able to speak. An officer accompanied the ambulance, and my mother asked me to ride with her.
Julian stayed behind to provide a statement.
I didn't look back.
At the hospital, a doctor explained that my mother was dehydrated and underweight, but there was no immediate indication of a life-threatening condition. She needed further tests and a quiet environment.
I sat beside her bed while she held my hand.
"Tell me everything," I whispered.
She looked exhausted.
"Not all at once, sweetheart. I don't know if I can."
"Then tell me what happened to Dad."
Her eyes filled with tears.
"Your father discovered that Victor Cross's shipping network was being used to move money through companies that didn't exist beyond paper. Some of the money came from legitimate contracts. Some was connected to criminal activity. He copied the records because he believed someone was preparing to use them to eliminate rivals and silence anyone who could expose the scheme."
"Was Julian involved?"
"I don't know what Julian knew at the time. He was young, but he was already part of his father's world."
"Did Victor kill Dad?"
My mother closed her eyes.
"I never saw your father die. Victor told me he was dead. He showed me photographs of the wrecked car and said the river had taken him."
"Then why did you believe him?"
"Because he knew where you lived. He knew your school. He knew your friends. He told me that if I tried to contact you, you would suffer the same fate."
She began to cry.
"I thought staying away was the only way to keep you alive."
I squeezed her hand.
"Why didn't you contact me after Victor died?"
"Because the threats didn't stop. Someone continued paying for my care and monitoring the property. I was told that if I tried to leave, the people who controlled the money would find you. I didn't know whether it was true, but I couldn't risk it."
"Who told you that?"
She hesitated.
"A man who worked for Victor. I knew him as Arthur."
Arthur Bell.
The missing chief financial officer.
I felt cold.
"Did you see him recently?"
My mother nodded.
"Three weeks ago. He came to the house and said the ledger had resurfaced. He wanted to know whether your father had left anything with me."
"What did you tell him?"
"That I had nothing."
"Did he believe you?"
"I don't know. He said the Cross family would soon turn against itself. Then he told me that a young woman had been hired to work in Julian's mansion."
I stared at her.
"He knew about me?"
"He knew your name. He said you had been placed there to make Julian reveal the ledger."
My stomach tightened.
"Who placed me there?"
My mother looked at me with unbearable sadness.
"I don't know. I was told Margaret had agreed to help you, but I never spoke to her directly."
That meant the messages, the payments, and my employment had been arranged by people whose motives remained unclear.
Then my mother reached for my wrist.
"Elena, there's something else. Arthur didn't just want the ledger. He wanted to know whether Julian had discovered the truth about his own accident."
I froze.
"What accident?"
"The mountain-road crash. The one that supposedly left him paralyzed."
I stared at her.
"Julian was never paralyzed."
"I know."
"How?"
My mother looked toward the closed hospital door.
"Because the crash wasn't meant to disable him."
May you like
Her voice dropped to a whisper.
"It was meant to kill him. And Arthur was the man who drove the second car."
